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19th Century

19th Century, 20th Century, Class Warm Up/Unit Opener, Grades 4 and Up, Grades 6 and Up, Grades 8 and Up

Population Growth in Chicago

Elevated view of a city neighborhood showing rows of tightly packed two-and-three story houses with a church and many industrial smoke stacks on the horizon.

Kathleen Thompson
May 2, 2023

19th Century, 20th Century, Classroom Materials, Collection Essays

These Are the Women Who Saved the Cities

Black-and-white bust photos of Jane Addmas (left) and Janie Porter Barrett (right). Addams is a middle-aged white woman wearing a high-necked black dress. Porter Barret is a younger light skinned Black woman wearing a high-necked dress decorated with buttons.

Kathleen Thompson
May 1, 2023

16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Classroom Materials, Collection Essays

Movable Mayhem: Pop-Up Books through the Ages

Sheets of paper layered one behind the other to create a 3D scene of buildings as if they rise up a hill. At the bottom is a body of water with fountains and a decorative balustrade running along its edge. Above this is a large neo-Romanesque house. Above this is an even larger rectangular building with grand entrances on each side, domes on the corners, and many flags. Above this is a cathedral-like building with tall windows filled with light and many domed towers. A US flag flies from its central, largest dome. The buildings are surrounded by lush plants.

Dr. Suzanne Karr Schmidt, Newberry Library
March 3, 2023

19th Century, 20th Century, Classroom Materials, Collection Essays

United States Expansion, Migrants, and Transportation Technologies, ca. 1810-1930

Colored map showing roads and bodies of water. Surrounded by a border of black-and-white photos advertising the local area, including photos of forests, lakes, Native people, moose and bear, and homes,

Gabrielle Guillerm, PhD
September 14, 2022

18th Century, 19th Century, 20th Century, Collection Essays

Maps as Heritage: Commemoration and Travel in American Cartography

Hand-drawn map, showing the country from Lake Superior and the Mississippi in the east to Pacific Ocean in the west and the Kansas River in the south to the northern boundary of the Louisiana Territory in the north. The map shows the locations of many Indigenous groups along with natural features like rivers, lakes, and mountain ranges.

Nicholas Kryczka, PhD
August 31, 2022

19th Century, Classroom Materials, Full Lesson Plan, Grades 8 and Up

Perspectives on the United States

Title page of book printed on birch bark. Title readings "The Red Man's Greeting, 1492-1892 by Chief Pokagon." In the lower right corner is an image of a white man standing on a beach with many other white men behind him. They carry flags and crosses and are disembarking from a boat." The image is captioned "Landing of Columbus."

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
April 6, 2022

19th Century, Class Warm Up/Unit Opener, Classroom Materials, Grades 8 and Up

The Second Great Awakening

Right hand page of a printed book. Reads, "for a minister to read his sermon--to turn over leaf after leaf, and at the conclusion say 'amen,' seemed to me like an 'empty sound and a tinkling cymbal.' I was not benefitted by his reading. It did not arouse me to a sense of my danger--and I am of the opinion that it had no better effect on the people of his charge. I liked to attend church, as I had been taught in my younger years to venerate the Sabbath day; and although young I could plainly perceive the difference between the preachers I had formerly heard and the minister at whose church I attended. I thought, as near as I can remember, that the Christian depended on the Holy Spirit's influence entirely, while this minister depended as much upon his learning. I would not be understood as saying any thing against knowledge; in its place it is good, and highly necessary to a faithful preacher of righteousness. What I object to is, placing too much reliance in it, making a god of it, &c. / Every thing went on smoothly for two or three years. About this time the Methodists began to hold meetings in the neighbourhood, and consequently a storm of persecution gathered; the pharisee and the worldling united heartily in abusing them. The gall and wormwood of sectarian malice were emitted, and every evil report prejudicial to this pious people was freely circulated. And"

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
April 5, 2022

19th Century, Class Warm Up/Unit Opener, Full Lesson Plan, Grades 6 and Up, Grades 8 and Up

Civil War Letters

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
February 28, 2022

18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

Latin American Independence in the Age of Revolutions

Will Hansen
August 25, 2021

19th Century, Class Warm Up/Unit Opener, Classroom Materials, Grades 4 and Up, Grades 6 and Up, Grades 8 and Up, Visual Literacy

Immigration and Universal Suffrage

Hilary Mac Austin and Kathleen Thompson
July 12, 2021

16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Collection Essays

Sugar and Power in the Early Modern World

Etching of white men participating in the sugar refinement process, including chopping up sugar cane, melting it in vats, and removing finished sugar from drying containers.

Dr. Sarah Peters Kernan, Independent Scholar
March 18, 2021

19th Century, Collection Essays

Shakespeare in the Nineteenth-Century United States

Jill Gage, Newberry Library
January 29, 2021